Morgan Johnson, 16, of Lake Elmo, received a Lifesaving Award from the Washington County Sheriffs Office during an April 12, 2018, ceremony at the Washington County Historic Courthouse in Stillwater. (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

When Morgan Johnson saw a car sinking into a holding pond near Greeley Street in Stillwater last August, she dived into the water to save the driver.

For her efforts, Morgan, 16, of Lake Elmo, recently received a Lifesaving Award from the Washington County sheriff’s office.

Morgan, who was 15 at the time, helped get the driver — a 17-year-old girl who was having medical issues — out of the vehicle, said Sheriff Dan Starry, who happened on the scene while driving by with his family.

“She was amazing,” Starry said. “She kept saying, ‘I had to do something. I had to do something.’ ”

Other citizen awards were given to Tevfik Anafarta, who helped save two kayakers on Forest Lake; and Peter Dahlberg, Omar Awad, Todd Nesvold and Mark Trembreull, who helped save a man who had a heart attack while skiing in Lake Elmo Park Reserve in February.

Mary Divine is a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She covers Washington County and the St. Croix River Valley, but has also spent time covering the state Capitol. She has won numerous journalism awards, including the Premack Award and the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists' Page One Award. Prior to joining the Pioneer Press in 1998, she worked for the Rochester, Minn., Post-Bulletin and at the St. Joseph, Mo., News-Press. Her work has also appeared in a number of magazines, including Mpls/St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Business Monthly and Minnesota Magazine. She is a graduate of Carleton College and lives in St. Paul with her husband, Greg Myers, and their three children, Henry, 16, Frances, 14, and Fred, 11.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Government & Politics

Republican leaders jammed most of their legislative goals into two massive bills for tax conformity and supplemental spending. Gov. Mark Dayton objected to many of the proposals in those bills and followed through on a promise to veto them. Here are some of the issues that had bipartisan support but will not get addressed because of the legislative loggerheads: TAX...

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump violates the First Amendment when he blocks critics on Twitter for political speech, a judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan stopped short in her written decision of ordering Trump or a subordinate to stop the practice of blocking critics from viewing his Twitter account, saying it was enough to...

﻿Too few students of color are enrolling in advanced classes, students said Tuesday evening in an extensive presentation to the St. Paul school board. Last school year, two-thirds of white secondary students but only about one-third of black and Native American students completed an advanced course. The school board’s student advisory group said the disparity starts early. A test given...

﻿Embattled Ramsey County District Court Judge Gurdip Atwal has picked up a challenger in the November election, as have Roseville mayor Dan Roe and Ramsey County Commissioner Janice Rettman. For candidates seeking elected office, Tuesday was the first day to file affidavits of candidacy for state and county seats, cities with a primary, and for the special election for an...

The University of Minnesota has backed away from a medical school fellowship in reproductive health care training that included abortion procedures following opposition from anti-abortion groups. The university took down the fellowship posting this month. The program was scheduled to begin in the fall, the Minnesota Daily reported. The Reproductive Health Access Project would have funded the fellowship, said Lisa...